Wednesday Words of Wisdom – Watch Your Coupons/Check Your Receipt

Coupons are like cash so you really need to pay attention to the cashier as he/she scans the coupons and always do a quick check of your receipt as you leave to look for errors. It also helps to know what your total should be and if it seems high, you can look for the reason why.

I hand my coupons over in sets… “here are my 6 razor coupons” (and then I watch them scan the coupons), “here are my store coupons” (and then I watch them scan them) If I know I should have 6 razor coupons, I count the beeps and watch the screen and make sure all 6 got scanned. You would not believe how many times I have to say “There should be 6 of those”. Every time a coupon is missed, its like throwing money in the trash!!!

Comments

Girl I know! I should have my husband read this. He went to Publix last night and missed EIGHT dollars worth of coupons! I counted them. I was so torked. I told him he has to watch the screen and I explain to him what coupons he had. I told him he can't go if he does that. GRRRRRR

Also, you have to be careful with the coupons for a free product wyb another product. I had one where the cashier gave me the cheaper product free even though it clearly stated on the coupon which one you had to buy and which one was free. I lost $3 that way because I was trying to hurry to pick up my son from preschool so I didn't have time to check my receipt right then.

I had this happen recently and I went to Customer Service afterwards for $1.55 that I was not credited. I am 99% sure they were talking badly about me while on the phone (she called the cashier's lane to have him pull the coupons). I am thinking, I am not the idiot, you are for not ringing up my transactions right!

I am going to start being a PITA and hand them my coupons one at a time so I can make sure I get all of them. I will do what it takes!

This is SO important…its especially hard if you have children or some other distraction (ie, you are in a rush, etc.)…last time Rite Aid did the B1G1 Covergirl, the cashier was examining ea and every coupon I had and pulling things out of the bag to compare them….my 5yo wandered over to the ice cream display (which is just a few steps away) and I turned to watch her…the cashier left off quite a few of my coupons, including my B1G1 Covergirl…I'm 99% positive she did it on purpose, bc she was being such a PITA about accepting them in the first place, and I should have checked my receipt before I left, bc when I called back, they pretty much told me I was out of luck, bc I had left and could not "prove" that I had those coupons when I made the purchase….so always watch your cashier, and always check your receipt before you leave the store…

I had cashiers who ask for my coupons before starting the transaction. After explaining that coupons are my money, which she didn't like, I then asked her if she always ask for the customer's money up front? I count my coupons and then have the cashier count them before paying.

It does burn me up to have coupons that don't get scanned. I had 4 free items coupons last Saturday. When the register beeped to enter a price, the cashier just threw them in the scanned pile and kept going. I had to stop him and say "none of those went through, please do them again." Turns out he didn't know how to ring in a Free coupon so he was just trying to get away without having to figure it out! I wish stores would train their cashiers (it doesn't seem like such a difficult task) and I wish more cashiers would understand what you said – coupons are like cash!

It's so funny on how yall are talking about this. My husband was just telling me the other day that I needed to go train cashiers at the stores. Like a " Coupon Consultant" or something. I did notice at my Publix on Thursday evening the managers are going to be there for any comments or questions or just to meet them. I was thinking about stopping by and talking to them about training cashiers better. What drives me nuts is when the cashiers make up their own rules to coupons!! thanks for all your posts Amy!! Bambi

I have had cashiers try to tell me just to hand them all to them at once and I say NO, too many times cashiers miss my coupons and I prefer to hand them over in sets and make sure they get rung up correctly. They usually roll their eyes at me HAHAHAHA

I wish the scanners would pull some sort of identifier from the UPC on the coupons – just anything to tag the specific product, so it would be easier to compare against receipts. Just like when the actual product is scanned and identified on the receipt. I should ask my husband (he's in IT, business intelligence/data architecture, heavy retail background including POS) if he knows if that information is something that CAN be pulled from the UPC on a coupon and printed on the receipt. None of the stores at which I shop (CVS, Walmart, Target, Safeway, Frys and Bashas – local chain) include that info on the receipt – just "Manufacturer coupon" or "store coupon". When you're dealing with a stack of them, it can be really hard to keep track as the cashier is scanning.

That happened to me twice last week! I really had to watch what the cashiers were doing. I went into CVS on saturday to catch the tail end of last week's deals and the computers were already switched to the Sunday Crest Toothpaste 2/$5 sale even though it should have still been on buy one for $3.50 and get $3.50 in ECB. I had to walk back into teh store after getting to my car to ask for my $7 in ECB

I asked my husband about the POS terminals printing detailed coupon information on the receipt. I'm not sure how much information is proprietry so I'm going to keep this vague*, but in a nutshell, right now most retailers are using terminals that aren't compatible with that level of technology. And rolling out new equipment, especially for the larger chains, is extremely expensive. Rats!*Just want to add, since one never knows who is reading what online, I was not told in-depth, sensitive or proprietry information by my husband, and in particular, nothing about specific companies. He was explaining the limitations of the commonly used POS system to me, fairly generally speaking. My background used to be grocery as well, which is why he mentioned the specific system – it's something with which I am already somewhat familiar.

Handing them over in groups is a good idea. I'm going to have to do that. 2 weeks ago, I had a huge problem with Target not taking one of my scrubbing bubbles coupons for a free refill because a .75 off any product attached to that instead of the wipes. After I argued with customer service to get my $3.xx back, I found out they also forgot to scan a $5. I almost lost $9 because of coupon problems. I think if I'd handed them over in groups, I would have been ok. Thanks!

Have you ever noticed how new coupons (freshly clipped or printed) tend to stick together? I found that crinkle them a bit before I use them at the store helps to make sure they don't get missed beacuse they stuck together.